8 Answers

No word yet, although rumors abound that an “HD” title will grace the launch lineup for the Wii U in Q3 or Q4 this year. Don’t get too hyped up, they were adamant about the “Zelda HD” video shown at E3 being purely a concept piece.

In the mean time, get your fix playing some of the oldies you may have missed. Since the Wii is backwards compatible, AND it has virtual console titles, there’s no excuse for not checking out some of the classics. Have you played them all yet?

Aunuma (the series’ current caretaker) has said he’d like to speed up development time for the big games and set a goal of releasing a Zelda game for the Wii U in 3 years (instead of 4–5).

Things I want:

• Motion controls again. If they use the Wii U “Tablet” as a controller instead of the wiimote swinging action, I’ll be pissed. Though I wouldn’t mind minigames that use the tablet.

• A magic wand. I actually think it would be cool to have a magic wand as a primary weapon, instead of a sword. The wand might have a spell that makes it function basically like a sword (or a light saber). But it would have other gesture-based spells, too, like fireballs and lightning, or telekinetic effects, or even teleportation effects. You could even have “wizard duels” with the wizrobe enemies from earlier games, sending magic back and forth through precise gestures like the wand fights in Harry Potter.

• It might be cool to play as Zelda instead of Link. Especially if the main weapon is a wand and not a sword, that might make sense. I don’t really care who the Avatar is all that much, but making it Zelda would have the benefit of forcing the game designers to rethink some of the series staples that are getting a bit stale now.

• A dungeon in outer space, like in a (magical) space station with floating/zero-G gameplay. This would be especially cool with a clawshot-like item. Just make sure it’s not too sci-fi (Skyward Sword managed this well with its robots).

• An illusion dungeon full of mirrors. A lens of truth-like item that actually cuts through the illusions, sword of like how the Master Sword cut through the Twilight mist in Twilight Princess.

• Camera control with the wiimote. I miss being able to control the camera with the right analog stick. Seems like it could work by toggling it with the D-pad and then moving the wiimote in the direction you want the camera to point.

• Harder fights. Skyward Sword deserves credit for being harder than recent Zelda games, but a lot of that was the learning curve of the new controls. I hope the new game elaborates on those controls and adds complexity and difficulty, rather than dumbing the difficulty down (like Wind Waker did with OoT’s revolutionary controls).

• Music that is as good, and used as well, as Skyward Sword’s. I loved not only the actual melodies/instrumentations but also how they changed during gameplay, how they added layers as you progressed in the dungeons, how the drums kicked in if you were doing badly in a fight. (Previous Zelda games have had dynamic music but nowhere near as good).

• Even less distinction between overworld and dungeons. Skyward Sword was on the right track, with the overworld often seeming like a “giant dungeon.” But it would be neat if Zelda abandoned the whole dichotomy entirely and just have you exploring “places of interest.”
_______

Things I don’t want:
• No cutscenes. Zelda still does cutscenes like it’s 1998. I don’t really care about the story in Zelda. I hated how Skyward Sword constantly stopped me from playing the game to show story cutscenes (even if some of them were amusing). I would rather the game tells the story through actions we see in the game world, while playing the game. Don’t take me out of the action!

• The above applies to “gameplay” cutscenes, too! Don’t pause the game to show 10 seconds of Link opening a treasure chest, or a gate swinging open, or a monster rearing up on its hind legs. And definitely don’t pause the game to tell me that I’ve found an amber relic, forcing the menu open, and showing that this makes 40 amber relics in my collection. That shit is inexcusable.

• On a similar note—if the next Zelda game has another character like Fi, who pauses the game constantly to tell me things that I already know, I think I’m going to have an aneurysm. Fi was the absolute worst thing about Skyward Sword, even though I liked her concept (and her theme music).

• No forest dungeon.

• No fire/volcano dungeon. That shit got old 3 games ago. They should find new dungeon “themes” to explore and design gameplay around.

• No more keys, unless you are actually in place that would logically have locked doors. I know keys are part of Zelda canon but they’re actually the least interesting way to progress through places in the games. I’d rather solve a puzzle by interacting with my environment in some way to get to the next room than open a chest, find a key, and press A to unlock a door.

• Less abstraction in the world designs. I liked the “density” of Skyward Sword, but most of the game’s world didn’t feel like a real place. It felt more like a Mario level, a playground scaffolding for gameplay ideas rather than an organic whole. That was probably because of the system’s limitations, and I don’t want Zelda to be “realistic,” but I would like the world to feel more immersive.

Look up the Zelda demo for Wii U . . . it’s everything I want and more, but Nintendo has been disappointing me since N64, so I won’t be buying the Wii U. The only reason I got the Wii was because of Virtual Console.

Ohhh, I see what you mean, b/c I didn’t like anything since N64? LOL Yea, I didn’t like it . . . but I still bought a gamecube. I still played windwaker, which I like but didn’t love.

And since I already had the Wii, I figured I might as well buy Twilight Princess (I was less than thrilled about) and Skyward, which I LOVE so far.

I just need something other than Zelda to sell me a console nowadays (unlike in years past). And the new Zelda for WiiU isn’t enough. I already have a virtual console, so what’s next? Their “iPhone bearing” controller doesn’t tickle my fancy.